Timothy McVeigh

Timothy McVeigh (23 April 1968-11 June 2001) was an American white supremacist terrorist who masterminded and committed the 1996 Oklahoma City bombing, which killed 168 people and wounded over 680. He was executed by lethal injection in 2001.

Biography
Timothy McVeigh was born in Lockport, Niagara County, New York in 1968 and raised in Pendleton. He was bullied as a child, but he came to believe that the United States government was the ultimate bully. His grandfather introduced him to firearms, and he had dreams of becoming a gun store owner, becoming a staunch gun rights supporter. McVeigh became an armored car guard, and, in May 1988, he enlisted in the US Army. In response to black servicemen wearing Black Power T-shirts, McVeigh purchased a "White Power" T-shirt, which was criticized by the military. He served as an artilleryman during the Gulf War, decapitating an Iraqi soldier with an artillery round in his first battle and earning several medals before being discharged later in 1991. After leaving the military, McVeigh became obsessed with right-wing conspiracy theories, claiming that the government had inserted a tracking chip into his buttocks. In 1993, he visited the Waco siege to show his support for the besieged Branch Davidians, protesting against the federal government's clamping-down on the armed group. He became a vendor at gun shows and sold several copies of The Turner Diaries, a white supremacist book which he obsessed over. McVeigh was soon radicalized as Terry Nichols taught him how to make explosives, and he planned to re-enact a scene in The Turner Diaries in which the protagonist bombed the FBI headquarters. On 19 April 1995, he drove a truck containing 5,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and nitromethane to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Buildings in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and the ensuing explosion blew the face from the building and killed 168 and wounded over 680. McVeigh was stopped near Perry, Oklahoma for driving without a license plate, and, when pages from The Turner Diaries were found in his car, he was arrested as the prime suspect. He and Nichols were soon in jail within the next few days, and both of them were charged with domestic terrorism. In 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death, and he was executed by lethal injection at Terre Haute in 2001.